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As several other festivals have recently cancelled or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we thought we should update you on our own Wickham Festival plans.

First and foremost, the health & safety of our artists, audience, staff & suppliers must come first. Our Festival can only go-ahead in August if, by then, it’s felt safe for it to do so.

At present, no mass gatherings are allowed anywhere in the UK due to Government restrictions. None of us yet know when those restrictions may be lifted and in what way.

Our view is that if Government restrictions are relaxed in time, our Wickham Festival will go-ahead in August as planned.

If Government restrictions are not relaxed in time, our Festival will be postponed to 5th-8th August 2021.

We want to keep the option of staging this year’s Festival open for as long as we possibly can. So much has changed in the past 5 weeks. No-one knows where we’ll be in 15 weeks time. If we can go-ahead in August we will with contingency plans in place to help ensure public safety.

If the peak of the pandemic has passed and it’s felt safe for people to leave their houses and enjoy the great outdoors again by August, we’re sure many people will be keen to do so. That said, we recognise there may be other people unwilling or unable to do so.

If our Wickham Festival does go-ahead in August we will allow anyone unable to attend the option of rolling-over your tickets to next year at no extra cost.

If our Festival does not go-ahead in August, all ticket-holders will be able to roll-over tickets to 2021. Refunds will also be available to those unable to attend our 2021 dates (5th-8th August 2021).

Wickham is run on a voluntary ‘not-for-profit’ basis with a shorter ‘build’ period than many bigger festivals. The local licensing authority are content for us to adopt a ‘wait & see’ policy as the situation develops. Crucially, our Medical Team are able and willing to provide our usual 24/7 medical cover without taking resources away from the NHS or other emergency services.

For all these reasons we can afford to wait for several weeks before taking a final decision on whether this year’s Festival can go-ahead as planned.

We expect the Government to indicate if some restrictions may start to be relaxed soon after the Bank Holiday weekend of May 8th-11th. We will update our Covid-19 advice to you then. We don’t expect any relaxation of the restrictions on public events until some weeks later. We will keep alive the hope of staging this year’s Festival for as long as we can but will have to take a final decision by 1st July at the very latest.

We hope this information is helpful to you. We will update it if anything changes. If you have any queries do please email us via eastfest@talk21.com and we’ll try to help.

Finally, may we thank you for your continued support at a very difficult & worrying time for all of us. While Government lockdown restrictions remain in place, please stick to them. Stay safe. We look forward to seeing you again at Wickham be it this August or in a year’s time.

With best wishes,
The Wickham Festival Team

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Let’s sign off with something positive … music!  Wickham regular favourites, Merry Hell, will be at Wickham Music Festival in August (Covid-permitting) with an electric band set Saturday and acoustic band set Sunday.  Here is their new great video ‘Beyond the Call (A song for our NHS)’ feat. Merry Hell with the Social Isolation Choir & Key Worker Chorus.